Is it time to review your professional development?

Why it’s important to review your professional development

Reviewing your professional development is a good opportunity to stop, and think about where you are in life.

It also gives you time to think about where you want to be and how you are going to get there.  At Leap Like a Salmon, we encourage regular reflection. To benefit from this skill, practice it regularly and undertake it with a structured approach.  

So, is it time to review your professional development?

3 things to ask yourself to find out if it’s time to review your professional development:

• Are you where you’d like to be in your career – do you feel fulfilled?
• Is your work-life balance right?
• What are your weaknesses? How can you strengthen them?

How can reflection help professional development?

Reflection is an integral (and often overlooked) part of the Continuous Professional Development (CPD) cycle. If you are recording your development, reflection is time efficient and will give you a greater understanding of how CPD activity has contributed to your learning, development and knowledge.

Studies prove that people who reflect on their learning, retain more information and are significantly more efficient at applying it to improve upon their performance. This in turn will boost professional development.

Reflection is especially valuable if you wish to get the best results from planned development activities. Reaping the rewards of a solid reflection strategy is a low-cost way to better career opportunities and improve ROI for business owners.

Gibbs Reflective Cycle is our ‘go-to’ model for reflective practice. It is easy to follow and raises your awareness and understanding of a situation(s).

We encourage you to use this model and go through each stage asking yourself the questions. See the difference this practice can make.

Recording reflections and CPD

The Leap Online Hub helps you reflect on the activities and achievements you undertake in your professional life.

Both the ‘CPD Hub’ and ‘document upload’ sections allow easy access to the information that you’ve uploaded. You can share these activities and communicate with others in your team. This allows whole groups to reflect as a community enhancing the CPD experience.

What is a good way to start a reflection?

To start your journey of reflection, consider the following:

• Have I achieved goals and targets in line with the ones outlined in my development plan for this period?
• Am I progressing in line with my career aspirations?
• Is it time to change my career aspirations? This might be based on new information.
• What type of development activity has been of the most value and the greatest benefit?
• What type of development has delivered the least benefit and a low ROI?
• Which new elements should I look to include in my next development planning cycle?

Choose a recent learning activity, knowledge conversation or project at work and write some observations using the questions above as thought leaders.

How to figure out how you learn

In addition to reflecting on what you have learnt, reflect on how you learn. This will help you determine how to reflect. For example, if you learn by listening, you could reflect by recording audio reflections.

Identifying types of CPD activities that suit your learning style will help you focus and plan efficient, effective activities to meet your future goals and organisational requirements.

Identifying your learning style will inform your next round of planning as per the CPD cycle. Recording learning and how you intend to apply it to your career will help you plan activities in other topics where you have acknowledged, through reflection, that further development is necessary.

In short, acknowledging your strengths and weaknesses will allow room for growth.

Why is reflection important?

Reflection is a way of demonstrating an understanding of trends, latest industry methods and techniques. It allows you to apply new knowledge as well as professional skills.

All professionals can use self-directed reflections and the Leap recording system to provide a permanent and accessible record of knowledge or skills gained. This permanent record can be used as evidence to support continuing professional development.

Regarding the process of recording CPD, there is a move towards self-reflection in relation to an individual’s professional development objectives and performance assessment. It is becoming increasingly customised and personal to individuals in every profession, so that learning is just it time, just enough and just for me.

Check out our online CPD Hub or stay informed with our Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn accounts.

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